Why Good Insurance Feels Like a Bad Bet
Ask most horsemen what they think about insurance, and you’ll get some variation of a groan. Whether it’s mortality insurance on a horse, liability coverage for the stable, or disability for a jockey, it feels expensive, frustrating, and often disappointing when it’s needed most.
But the horseracing world is built on risk—risk in training, in business, in ownership, and even in daily life at the track. Few industries combine so many unpredictable events with such high financial stakes. That’s why, despite the frustration, insurance plays a crucial role behind the scenes of every stable, ownership group, and racing career.
If you make a living in racing—or have enough invested in it to care—you need to understand what insurance is really for, why it often feels like a rip-off, and why it’s still necessary.
Racing Is Built on Risk
No one in the racing business needs a lecture on risk. Horses colic. Riders fall. Barns catch fire. Vehicles are in constant motion. You can work seven days a week and still have your livelihood upended by a single freak injury, lawsuit, or storm.
Here are just a few examples where insurance often plays a role:
A young prospect breaks down in training… mortality insurance may soften the loss.
A visitor slips and falls on your property… liability insurance defends and pays the claim.
A jockey suffers a head injury… disability or medical insurance covers treatment and lost income.
A truck hauling your horses is totaled… commercial auto coverage keeps business moving.
These aren’t routine. But when they happen, the costs are massive. The whole point of insurance is to transfer these rare but devastating risks away from individuals and toward insurance companies who manage large pools of risk.
Pooling Risk: What Insurance Actually Does
Insurance isn’t a scam. It’s a system: many people contribute to a pool, so that a few can be covered when disaster strikes. The insurance company sits in the middle, managing that pool.
In racing, as in other industries, the most important risks are:
Low probability, high cost (a trailer accident or serious barn fire)
Hard to plan for (a lawsuit from a passerby injured at the farm)
Too expensive to self-fund (a full loss of property or a severe injury)
You don’t buy insurance because you expect to win. You buy it because you can’t afford to lose.
Insurance companies set prices based on the odds of something happening, then charge enough to cover claims, business costs, and profit. That means the expected return for the buyer is negative, but the outcome without insurance could be financially devastating.
Why It Feels Like a Rip-Off
Most racing professionals can name at least one insurance company that gave them a hard time on a claim, or jacked up premiums without warning. It feels personal. But the business model of insurance is built around financial discipline, not loyalty.
Here’s why it often feels so bad:
The best-case scenario is no claim: You pay every month and get nothing back, because nothing went wrong. That's success, but it doesn’t feel like it.
Claims take time: The more money at stake, the more paperwork and scrutiny. Insurance companies are trying to weed out fraud, but to the claimant, it just feels like stonewalling.
Premiums are confusing: You paid for coverage, but there are exclusions and limits. If your policy didn’t cover a fire caused by faulty wiring—or didn’t include loss-of-use for a damaged truck—you might feel blindsided.
In racing, where people are used to solving problems fast and with grit, dealing with an insurance company’s process can feel like running through mud.
When Insurance Works Well in Racing
Despite the frustration, insurance plays a critical role in keeping racing businesses afloat. It works best when:
Risks are clear and measurable: Like mortality insurance on horses with vet checks and appraisals.
Policies are well-matched to real exposures: Like general liability for trainers with employees or spectators on site.
Premiums are priced properly: Not dirt cheap (which usually means coverage is weak), but fair for the level of protection you get.
Well-run racing operations understand insurance not as a profit opportunity, but as a cost of doing business, no different from hay, feed, or payroll. It’s a tool to keep the barn running when the unthinkable happens.
When Insurance Fails in Racing
Insurance becomes a real problem in the racing industry when:
Coverage gaps are ignored: You think you’re covered until you’re not.
The pool is too small: Specialty coverage, like jockey disability or equine transit insurance, can become unaffordable if too few people buy it.
Risk becomes uninsurable: Like when wildfires, hurricanes, or floods drive insurers out of entire regions.
That’s when premiums go through the roof… or insurance disappears altogether. And unfortunately, by the time a problem is widespread enough to get attention, it’s usually too late for policyholders to find alternatives.
So, What’s the Solution for Horsemen and Owners?
The goal isn’t to love insurance. It’s to understand what it’s meant to do and make sure you’re using it wisely.
Here are some tips tailored to the racing industry:
Insure what you can't afford to lose. If you can't replace a trailer or absorb a liability judgment, you need coverage.
Know what’s excluded. Read the policy—or have someone explain it. Don’t assume “full coverage” means what you think.
Work with agents who know racing. They’ll help tailor the policy to your actual risk, not just a generic farm or business template.
Update coverage annually. Horses change, barns expand, and risk shifts. Old policies may not fit your current situation.
The Bottom Line: Hate It or Not, Insurance Is Part of Racing Life
In racing, you deal with unpredictability every day. You know you can train perfectly and still lose. Insurance is no different. You can pay faithfully for years and feel like you got nothing. But when something goes wrong—and it will eventually—you’ll wish you had it in place.
The payout may not feel generous. The paperwork might be frustrating. But insurance gives you the financial runway to survive the unexpected, and in a high-risk business like racing, that can be the difference between rebuilding and walking away.
Don’t buy it to come out ahead. Buy it so one bad day doesn’t take you out of the game.
